Construction is underway on a new emergency services aircraft hangar at Lake Simcoe Regional Airport in Oro-Medonte.
Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones joined local dignitaries and officials from Ornge and the Ontario Provincial Police at the airport Thursday to mark the groundbreaking on the nearly 100,000-square-foot facility.
The provincial government is investing $56.3 million in the project, which will bring air ambulance and police aviation services together under one roof.
The hangar will house Ornge's two new fixed-wing Special Mission Aircraft, along with four OPP helicopters and four OPP fixed-wing aircraft.
Jones says the partnership will help get critical care and law enforcement resources into the air faster, improving response times to life-threatening emergencies, including car accidents, heart attacks and strokes.
She says the new facility will help "streamline logistics to deploy critical care and law enforcement resources faster."
Ornge's two new high-speed aircraft will be capable of travelling longer distances without refuelling and transporting patients with specialized care needs, including neonatal, pediatric and bariatric patients.
Ornge President and CEO Dr. Homer Tien says the facility will provide an important strategic location for patient transportation across Ontario.
Once operational, the base will house a Pilatus PC-24 aircraft, supported by a backup aircraft to maintain service reliability.
Tien says it will be a fully operational base, running "24 hours a day, 365 days a year," staffed by Ornge critical care paramedics and pilots.
He says the aircraft will help move patients who need specialized and tertiary-level care, including those travelling from Northern Ontario to major treatment centres in Toronto and patients being transferred between hospitals elsewhere in the province.
"Whether a patient needs to be transported from northern communities to a major treatment centre in Toronto or between hospitals elsewhere in the province, this aircraft will allow us to move patients quickly and safely to the care that they need," says Tien.
The new hangar is also part of a larger investment in Ornge's air ambulance fleet.
Jones says the government previously announced another $118 million to expand Ornge's fixed-wing fleet to 12 aircraft. That includes replacing its existing eight fixed-wing aircraft and building a larger hangar in Sudbury.
Ornge conducts approximately 25,000 air and land ambulance patient transports every year. About 98 per cent of its fixed-wing patient transports originate in Northern Ontario.
OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique says the expanded aviation program will strengthen the force's ability to respond to emergencies and conduct operations in remote and difficult-to-access areas.
That includes search and rescue missions, missing-person investigations, tactical deployments, hostage rescues and specialized investigations.
Carrique says the OPP relies on its aircraft to fly more than 4,000 hours every year in support of public safety across Ontario.
"We rely on our fixed-wing and helicopter assets to fly more than 4,000 hours annually in support of public safety across this province," he says.
He says bringing the two organizations together will increase their ability to work alongside one another.
"We together will increase our interoperability and ensure that our shared missions to keep Ontario safe, secure, and healthy is realized," says Carrique.
Construction is expected to be completed in winter 2027. The project is also expected to support approximately 200 construction jobs in the region.
